Kentucky Senate approves bill requiring medical care for all babies born alive
The Kentucky Senate on Thursday voted 32-to-0 to approve an anti-abortion bill that would require doctors and nurses to provide “all medically appropriate and reasonable steps to preserve the life” of babies born alive in Kentucky, even if they are born mortally ill or injured and their parents request only “comfort care.”
Senate Bill 227 unanimously had passed the Senate Committee on Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection hours earlier. It proceeds to the House.
The sponsor, state Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Hopkinsville, said his bill is meant to punish medical professionals who deny health care from infants born after surviving an abortion attempt in order to deliberately let them die. Doctors and nurses would face a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, for violating the law.
“People tend to debate whether or not life begins at conception, as I believe that it does.” Westerfield told the Senate committee. “But surely there can be no debate that life exists at birth and we should darned well do what we can to protect those children.”
Later, Westerfield said he does not know how often in Kentucky a newborn infant is denied medical care. The state enacted a ban on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy in 2017, making late-term abortions illegal.
Westerfield said he has heard second-hand reports of hundreds of “failed abortion attempts” around the country that left newborns medically vulnerable in the delivery room.
“I can’t say that I’ve seen or heard with my own personal ears accounts of it happening. But you can find stories everywhere,” Westerfield said. “I have no reason to believe they’re not happening and they’re not happening here.”
Nobody spoke in opposition to the bill.
“It’s sad that we even have to legislate this,” state Sen. Wil Schroder, R-Wilder, told Westerfield. “I really appreciate you bringing it forward.”
Republicans in Congress and a number of states have sponsored “born-alive” bills since Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, made controversial remarks in January about a bill in his state that would loosen abortion restrictions.
“This is why decisions such as this should be made by providers, physicians, and the mothers and fathers that are involved,” Northam said. “When we talk about third-trimester abortions, it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s nonviable.”
“If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen,” Northam added. “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
A spokesperson for Northam later said he had not been referring to state-sponsored infanticide, but rather to “the tragic and extremely rare case in which a woman with a nonviable pregnancy or severe fetal abnormalities went into labor.”
However, Westerfield, who quoted from Northam’s comments on Thursday, said medical professionals must do everything in their power to keep newborns alive regardless of other circumstances. Asked about infants born with severe disabilities or other health problems that will cause them to suffer and soon die, Westerfield said parents should not have the authority to order comfort care rather than extraordinary medical intervention.
“I think if there’s a chance for the baby to survive, they’ve got to try to keep the baby alive,” Westerfield said. “What about the wishes of the child?”
In 2002, Congress passed a federal law that recognizes as a person with full legal rights every human who is born alive. But that law does not contain criminal penalties for violations, as Westerfield’s does, and it does not specifically call for doctors and nurses to use all medical means available to save lives.
Westerfield’s bill is one of a half-dozen filed this legislative session regarding abortion.
Among the others, House Bill 5 would ban abortion in Kentucky for women seeking to end pregnancies because of their unborn child’s sex, race, color, national origin or disability. House Bill 148 would ban abortion in Kentucky if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade legalizing the procedure. And Senate Bill 9 would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy.
This story was originally published February 28, 2019 at 11:06 AM.
